Lab Automation Market (2026-2036)

The growth of this market is mainly driven by the revision of European good manufacturing practice requirements for computerised systems, which expands the governing annex from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters and adds a new annex covering artificial intelligence, the migration of laboratory data management from instrument-attached software to validated enterprise platforms, strategic acquisition of scientific software at high multiples, modular workcell architectures that allow automation to be bought incrementally, and the shift of diagnostic laboratory workload onto automated platforms. However, the contraction of academic and government instrument demand under budget uncertainty, weak life-science instrumentation spending through 2025, the capital intensity of integrated automation, and validation burden that lengthens deployment timelines restrain the growth of this market.

Beyond these, laboratory informatics and artificial intelligence modules, modular robotic workcells, automation-as-a-service and cloud laboratory access, bioprocessing and cell therapy automation, and GxP-regulated deployment are expected to create significant growth opportunities for the stakeholders in this market.

Laboratory automation is the hardware, software and service infrastructure through which sample handling, preparation, measurement, storage and data management in a laboratory are performed with reduced manual intervention. Systems in scope include automated liquid handling workstations, automated nucleic acid purification instruments, automated immunoassay and ELISA processors, automated microplate readers and washers, automated storage and retrieval systems, automated incubators, cell counters and cell imaging systems, robotic arms and workcell integration hardware, and automated sample preparation equipment. Software in scope includes laboratory information management systems, electronic laboratory notebooks, scientific data management systems, workstation and instrument control software, scheduling and workflow orchestration, and artificial intelligence and data analytics modules. Services cover installation, qualification and validation, maintenance, workflow consulting and application development. On this basis the market was valued at USD 9.80 billion in 2025, is estimated at USD 10.45 billion in 2026 and is forecast to reach USD 20.20 billion by 2036 at a CAGR of 6.8%. Track-based total laboratory automation, pre-analytical specimen processing and clinical middleware installed in diagnostic core laboratories are measured separately and excluded here.

The ecosystem has four supplier groups and one demand base. Diversified life-science instrument manufacturers including Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher, Agilent Technologies, Revvity, Sartorius, Shimadzu and Bio-Rad Laboratories supply automation inside broad instrument portfolios and increasingly bundle instrument control and data software with the hardware. Automation specialists including Tecan, Hamilton, SPT Labtech, Opentrons, Hudson Robotics, HighRes Biosolutions, INTEGRA Biosciences, Gilson, Eppendorf and Analytik Jena concentrate on liquid handling, workcell integration and sample preparation, and several supply instruments on an original equipment manufacturer basis to diagnostics companies. Sample storage specialists including Azenta Life Sciences and Hamilton Storage supply automated biorepository and compound storage systems. Laboratory informatics vendors including LabWare, LabVantage Solutions, Benchling, Dassault Systemes and the Dotmatics business acquired by Siemens supply the data layer above the instruments. Demand comes from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospital and diagnostic laboratories, academic and government research institutes, contract research and manufacturing organisations, and food, agricultural, environmental and forensic laboratories. The scale of the participants spans 3 orders of magnitude: Tecan reported 2025 sales of CHF 882.5 million across approximately 3,000 employees, the Dotmatics software business was acquired for USD 5.1 billion on annual recurring revenue above USD 300 million, and laboratory informatics installed bases exceed 1,500 customers at LabVantage and 1,100 across 60 countries at STARLIMS.

This market has two halves with different economics, and treating them as one produces the error in the preceding edition. The systems half is a capital equipment business on instrument replacement cycles of roughly 7 to 10 years, sold against annual capital budgets, where supplier margins sit in the mid teens and revenue is cyclical: Tecan reported 2025 adjusted EBITDA of CHF 142.1 million at a 16.1% margin against 17.6%, and reported EBITDA of CHF 117.1 million at 13.3% against 15.8%, on sales down 1.6% in local currencies. The software half is a licence and subscription business with recurring revenue, higher gross margin and regulatory rather than discretionary demand, and it is priced accordingly by strategic buyers, as the USD 5.1 billion agreed for Dotmatics against annual recurring revenue above USD 300 million indicates. The services half attaches to both, with qualification and validation consuming a growing share as GxP deployment expands. Blended market growth is therefore a weighted outcome of a systems market the suppliers expect to grow 1% to 3% through 2028 and a software market compounding at double digits.

Three regulatory developments define the forecast period. The European Union good manufacturing practice guidelines on computerised systems are being revised, with a draft issued on 7 July 2025 expanding the governing annex from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters, a consultation that closed on 7 October 2025, and a chapter on data governance expanding from 9 pages to 17, alongside a new annex addressing artificial intelligence in regulated manufacturing. Second, the diagnostic test regulatory pathway in the United States was removed when the laboratory developed tests final rule was vacated on 31 March 2025 in American Clinical Laboratory Association v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, No. 4:24-CV-479, in the Eastern District of Texas, which would have covered nearly 80,000 tests at almost 1,200 laboratories from a May 2025 effective date. Third, good laboratory practice, clinical laboratory improvement requirements, accreditation to international laboratory competence standards and data integrity expectations govern how automation and its software must be qualified, documented and audited, which is why compliance basis is treated as a segmentation dimension in this edition.

North America holds the largest position, supported by the concentration of pharmaceutical and biotechnology research spending, the density of contract research and development organisations, and the installed base of laboratory informatics in regulated manufacturing. It also carries the sharpest downside exposure, since Tecan recorded that academic and government instrument demand was significantly affected by budget uncertainty in the United States during 2025. Europe is the second region and sets the compliance agenda, since the revision of the good manufacturing practice annex on computerised systems, issued in draft on 7 July 2025 with consultation closed on 7 October 2025, determines validation requirements for laboratory software worldwide through its adoption by multinational manufacturers. Asia-Pacific is projected to grow fastest, supported by pharmaceutical and contract manufacturing capacity expansion in China, India, South Korea and Japan, and by domestic instrument suppliers including Shimadzu, although Tecan recorded that Chinese instrument demand was also affected by budget uncertainty in 2025. Latin America and the Middle East & Africa remain small, led by Brazilian and Gulf research and testing capacity.

The strongest driver in this market is a regulatory revision that makes validated laboratory software a compliance necessity rather than an operational convenience. The European Union good manufacturing practice guidelines on computerised systems are being revised, with a draft issued on 7 July 2025 that expands the governing annex from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters and a consultation that closed on 7 October 2025. The chapter addressing data governance expands from 9 pages to 17, and a separate new annex addresses the use of artificial intelligence in regulated manufacturing. Laboratories operating under these requirements must demonstrate audit trail integrity, access control, backup and archiving, periodic review and supplier assessment for every computerised system in the quality chain. Instrument-attached software and spreadsheets cannot satisfy that burden, which is why the obligation converts directly into demand for validated laboratory information management systems, electronic laboratory notebooks and scientific data management systems.

Laboratories are replacing per-instrument data capture with enterprise platforms that hold the record, which changes both the value and the recurrence of the software half of this market. The commercial evidence is in the installed bases: LabVantage reports more than 1,500 customers across life science and non-life-science sectors and STARLIMS reports more than 1,100 customers across 60 countries, which are enterprise deployments rather than instrument licences. The driver is that a validated platform spreads qualification cost across an entire instrument estate rather than repeating it per device, that it produces the audit trail and periodic review evidence the revised computerised systems requirements demand, and that it survives instrument replacement cycles of roughly 7 to 10 years. For suppliers the consequence is recurring subscription revenue at software gross margins against the mid-teens margins reported on instruments, where Tecan recorded a 2025 adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.1% against 17.6%.

The clearest market signal on the value of the software half is the price acquirers will pay for it. Siemens agreed to acquire Dotmatics for USD 5.1 billion against annual recurring revenue above USD 300 million, a multiple that is not reconcilable with a global software segment measured at approximately USD 2.11 billion in 2025. Abbott holds STARLIMS with more than 1,100 customers across 60 countries, Danaher and Dassault Systemes hold scientific informatics assets, and Benchling has built a cloud research data platform serving biotechnology development. The pattern is consistent: diversified industrial and life-science groups are acquiring laboratory data layers rather than building them, because the validation documentation, instrument driver libraries and regulatory track record required cannot be assembled quickly. For the market this both confirms the scale of the software segment and accelerates investment into it.

The barrier to laboratory automation has historically been that a fully integrated system requires a single large capital decision, and modular architecture removes it. A modular workcell combines a liquid handler, plate handling robot, reader, incubator and storage module on a shared scheduling layer, can be specified for one assay and extended later, and fits an existing laboratory footprint without structural work. This matches how laboratory capital budgets are actually released, in annual increments rather than in programme allocations, and it suits an environment in which academic and government instrument demand was significantly affected by budget uncertainty in the United States and China during 2025. Specialists including SPT Labtech, HighRes Biosolutions, Opentrons and Hudson Robotics compete specifically on this basis, and the established suppliers have followed. The commercial consequence is that the addressable base extends well below the laboratories that could previously justify integration.

Within a flat systems market, the diagnostic customer base is the segment that grew, and supplier disclosure separates the two clearly. Tecan recorded that diagnostic accounts delivered solid sales and order growth in local currencies throughout 2025 and that in vitro diagnostic systems grew within its Synergence product line, while academic and government instrument demand was significantly affected by budget uncertainty in the United States and China, biopharmaceutical sales were slightly down with orders recovering strongly in the second half, and overall weak life science instrumentation demand affected both original equipment manufacturer components and contract development and manufacturing services. The mechanism is that diagnostic testing volume is driven by clinical demand and reimbursement rather than by research budgets, so it is insulated from grant funding cycles. This is why clinical diagnostics is the fastest-growing application in this market despite drug discovery remaining the largest.

The customer group that historically absorbed the largest share of research automation instruments reduced purchasing during the base year, and the effect is documented by the supplier rather than inferred. Tecan recorded that academic and government instrument demand was significantly affected by budget uncertainty in the United States and China in 2025, contributing to group sales of CHF 882.5 million against CHF 934.3 million, down 1.6% in local currencies and 5.5% in Swiss francs, with Life Sciences Business sales down 1.0% in local currencies to CHF 377.1 million and down 3.2% in the second half. The mechanism matters for the forecast: academic laboratories buy instruments from grant allocations that are committed years in advance, so a funding disruption removes orders for several cycles rather than for one, and recovery requires both appropriation and award before procurement resumes.

The weakness in 2025 extended beyond end-user purchasing into components and contract manufacturing, which indicates a genuine demand contraction rather than a timing effect. Tecan recorded that overall weak demand for life science instrumentation affected both its original equipment manufacturer component business and its contract development and manufacturing services, took a CHF 139.5 million non-cash impairment on design functions acquired in 2021 together with a CHF 5.3 million write-off on exited genomics activities, and reported a net loss of CHF 110.7 million against a profit of CHF 67.7 million in 2024, with basic earnings per share of negative CHF 8.74 against positive CHF 5.30. Reported EBITDA fell to CHF 117.1 million at a 13.3% margin from CHF 148.0 million at 15.8%. Where component and contract manufacturing volumes fall together with instrument sales, fixed manufacturing cost is spread across fewer units and the whole chain absorbs margin pressure.

The most direct constraint on this forecast is that the suppliers themselves do not expect the systems market to grow quickly. Tecan described its relevant market as broadly flat in 2026, growing 1% to 3% in 2027 and 2028 and 3% to 5% from 2029, and guided its own 2026 sales growth to the low single-digit percentage range in local currencies with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.5% to 16.5% including a 110 basis point headwind from currency and tariffs. Its medium-term ambition of CHF 1 billion of sales and a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin by 2028 depends on a transformation programme contributing 200 to 300 basis points of margin and on average organic growth of mid to high single digits only from 2029. A market in which the specialist supplier expects 1% to 3% growth through 2028 cannot support a blended rate materially above the mid single digits unless software carries it.

Automation in a regulated laboratory is not productive on delivery, and the interval between purchase and use suppresses the rate at which demand converts into revenue. An integrated workstation requires method transfer from manual to automated execution, liquid class and volume verification across every reagent and labware combination, scheduling validation, interface qualification to the laboratory information management system, and installation, operational and performance qualification documentation. Under the revised computerised systems requirements, which expand the governing annex from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters with a data governance chapter growing from 9 pages to 17, that documentation burden increases rather than falls. For a laboratory the practical consequence is that a purchase decided in one budget year is frequently not in routine use until the next, and for suppliers it means revenue recognition and reference-site development both lag order intake, which Tecan reported at CHF 900.9 million with a book-to-bill above 1 in both segments.

The software half of this market is where growth, margin and strategic value are concentrated, and it has been materially understated. Laboratory information management systems alone are sized at USD 2.18 billion in 2025, which exceeds the approximately USD 2.11 billion implied for the entire software segment including electronic laboratory notebooks, scientific data management systems and instrument control software. The opportunity extends beyond the record-keeping core: artificial intelligence and analytics modules applied to assay development, anomaly detection in instrument output, predictive scheduling across a workcell and automated review of audit trails address the periodic review burden that the revised computerised systems requirements impose, and the new annex addressing artificial intelligence in regulated manufacturing establishes the compliance framework within which they must operate. Siemens paying USD 5.1 billion for Dotmatics against annual recurring revenue above USD 300 million indicates how strategic buyers value that position.

The largest unpenetrated opportunity is the laboratory that cannot justify an integrated system but can justify a workcell. A modular configuration combining a liquid handler, plate handling robot, reader, incubator and storage module on a shared scheduling layer can be specified for a single assay, extended as throughput grows and installed into an existing footprint without structural work, which matches annual capital release rather than programme funding. This matters more where budgets are uncertain, as they were for academic and government customers in the United States and China during 2025. Specialists including SPT Labtech, HighRes Biosolutions, Opentrons, Hudson Robotics and INTEGRA Biosciences compete on exactly this basis, at price points an order of magnitude below full integration, and the scheduling and orchestration software that coordinates such a cell is itself a growing software category within this market.

Removing the capital decision entirely opens demand that neither instruments nor workcells reach. Under automation-as-a-service and cloud laboratory models the customer buys executed assays or scheduled instrument access rather than owning hardware, which converts a capital request competing against other laboratory priorities into an operating cost scaling with experimental volume. The attraction is strongest where budget uncertainty has deferred capital purchases, which supplier disclosure identifies as the condition in academic and government accounts in the United States and China through 2025, and where a laboratory needs occasional high-throughput capacity rather than continuous utilisation. For suppliers the model converts lumpy instrument sales into recurring revenue and secures consumable and software attachment, and it suits the contract research and development organisations that are the fastest-growing end-user group in this market.

Automation demand is shifting from discovery screening toward process development and manufacturing support, where the regulatory requirement is highest and the willingness to pay follows it. Cell and gene therapy manufacturing requires automated cell counting, imaging, media handling, sterility assurance and electronic batch documentation under good manufacturing practice conditions, and bioprocess development requires automated sampling, analytical measurement and data capture across parallel bioreactor arrays. These workflows sit squarely inside the revised computerised systems requirements, under an annex expanding from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters with a data governance chapter growing from 9 pages to 17, so both the hardware and its validated software are compliance-driven rather than discretionary. Suppliers positioned here include Sartorius, Danaher, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Revvity, and the category carries GxP-grade pricing rather than research-use pricing.

The central analytical difficulty is that this market is a weighted sum of a flat capital equipment business and a compounding software business, and a single blended rate conceals both. The systems half faces supplier guidance of a broadly flat 2026, 1% to 3% growth in 2027 and 2028 and 3% to 5% from 2029, with 2025 sales down 1.6% in local currencies at the specialist supplier. The software half is anchored by laboratory information management systems alone at USD 2.18 billion in 2025 and by a USD 5.1 billion acquisition against annual recurring revenue above USD 300 million. Because software share rises across the forecast, the blended rate rises with it, which means a constant growth rate applied to a combined base, as in the preceding edition, misstates both the early and late years. Any credible model must forecast the halves separately and then aggregate.

Orders improved through 2025 while revenue did not, and the difference is structural rather than temporary. Tecan reported order entry of CHF 900.9 million against CHF 903.6 million, down 0.3% in Swiss francs but up 3.8% in local currencies, with a book-to-bill ratio above 1 in both segments, second-half order entry up 8.6% in local currencies and Partnering Business order entry up in the low double digits in the second half, against sales down 1.6% in local currencies. The intervening steps are method transfer, liquid class verification, scheduling validation, interface qualification and installation, operational and performance qualification documentation, all of which lengthen under the revised computerised systems requirements. For suppliers this means revenue visibility improves before revenue does, and for buyers it means the productivity case must be built on a timeline measured in quarters rather than weeks.

Artificial intelligence applied to laboratory data creates a validation problem that existing frameworks were not written for, and the regulators are addressing it only now. A model that classifies assay results, flags anomalies or schedules a workcell influences a regulated decision, which means it falls inside the computerised systems requirements being revised, where the governing annex expands from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters and the data governance chapter from 9 pages to 17, alongside a new annex specifically addressing artificial intelligence in regulated manufacturing. The practical difficulties are that a model updated on new data is no longer the version that was validated, that explainability is required where a result affects batch disposition, and that training data provenance must be documented. Suppliers must therefore deliver version control, change management and audit trail capability around the model, which raises development cost but also raises the barrier to entry.

Laboratory automation returns technician hours, reproducibility and traceability rather than revenue, which is the hardest case to make when budgets are uncertain. The evidence that this constrains purchasing is direct: academic and government instrument demand was significantly affected by budget uncertainty in the United States and China through 2025, biopharmaceutical sales were slightly down, and the specialist supplier recorded a net loss of CHF 110.7 million and reported EBITDA of CHF 117.1 million at a 13.3% margin against 15.8%. Building the case requires assigning value to avoided repeat experiments, to reproducibility in regulated submissions and to audit readiness under requirements that are themselves expanding, none of which appears in a laboratory revenue line. Modular and service-based models partially resolve this by reducing the size of the decision, which is why both are growing faster than integrated capital systems.

Growth in this market is now concentrated in the data layer rather than in the instruments beneath it. Laboratory information management systems alone are sized at USD 2.18 billion in 2025, which exceeds the approximately USD 2.11 billion implied for the entire software segment in the preceding edition including electronic laboratory notebooks, scientific data management systems and instrument control software combined. Strategic buyers have confirmed the valuation, with Siemens agreeing to acquire Dotmatics for USD 5.1 billion against annual recurring revenue above USD 300 million. Against that, the specialist systems supplier recorded 2025 sales down 1.6% in local currencies at CHF 882.5 million with a net loss of CHF 110.7 million. The forecasting consequence is that software share rises across the period, which lifts the blended rate in the later years and makes a single constant growth rate inappropriate.

The specialist suppliers have published their own view of the addressable systems market and it is well below the rate previously assumed. Tecan described its relevant market as broadly flat in 2026, growing 1% to 3% in 2027 and 2028 and 3% to 5% from 2029, guided its own 2026 sales growth to the low single-digit percentage range in local currencies at an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.5% to 16.5% including a 110 basis point currency and tariff headwind, and set a medium-term ambition of CHF 1 billion of sales at a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin by 2028 with 200 to 300 basis points from its transformation programme and average organic growth of mid to high single digits only from 2029. For a market sized on instrument revenue, that guidance is the most reliable forward indicator available and it caps the systems contribution to blended growth.

The 2025 cycle separated customers rather than product categories, which changes how segment forecasts should be built. Tecan recorded that diagnostic accounts delivered solid sales and order growth in local currencies throughout the year and that in vitro diagnostic systems grew within the Synergence line, while academic and government instrument demand was significantly affected by budget uncertainty in the United States and China, biopharmaceutical sales were slightly down with orders recovering strongly in the second half, and weak life science instrumentation demand affected both original equipment manufacturer components and contract development and manufacturing services. The same liquid handler sold into a diagnostic laboratory grew and sold into a university laboratory did not. This is why clinical diagnostics is the fastest-growing application here, and it is consistent with the separate finding that clinical laboratory automation is growing while research instrumentation is flat.

Laboratories are buying automation in increments rather than in programmes, and suppliers have restructured around that. A modular workcell combining a liquid handler, plate handling robot, reader, incubator and storage module on a shared scheduling layer can be specified for one assay, extended as throughput grows and installed into an existing footprint without structural work, at price points an order of magnitude below full integration. The architecture matches how laboratory capital is actually released, in annual tranches against competing priorities, which matters more where budget uncertainty deferred purchases through 2025. Specialists including SPT Labtech, HighRes Biosolutions, Opentrons, Hudson Robotics and INTEGRA Biosciences compete specifically on this basis, and the scheduling and orchestration software coordinating such a cell is a growing software category in its own right within this market.

The decisive change in the software half is that compliance now depends on it. The European Union good manufacturing practice guidelines on computerised systems are being revised, with a draft issued on 7 July 2025 expanding the governing annex from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters, a consultation closed on 7 October 2025, a data governance chapter expanding from 9 pages to 17, and a separate new annex addressing artificial intelligence in regulated manufacturing. Audit trail integrity, access control, backup and archiving, periodic review and supplier assessment must be demonstrated for every computerised system in the quality chain, which instrument-attached software and spreadsheets cannot do. Installed-base growth reflects the shift, with LabVantage reporting more than 1,500 customers and STARLIMS more than 1,100 across 60 countries.

Based on product, the market is segmented into systems, software, and services. In 2026, the systems segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to the capital value of automated liquid handling workstations, nucleic acid purification instruments, immunoassay processors, microplate readers and automated storage installed across pharmaceutical, diagnostic and research laboratories on replacement cycles of roughly 7 to 10 years. However, the software segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to the revision of the good manufacturing practice annex on computerised systems from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters, to laboratory information management systems alone being sized at USD 2.18 billion in 2025, and to recurring subscription revenue at software margins against the 16.1% adjusted EBITDA margin reported on instruments.

Based on system type, the market is segmented into automated liquid handling, automated nucleic acid purification, automated immunoassay and ELISA processors, automated microplate readers and washers, automated storage and retrieval, automated incubators, cell counters and imagers, robotic arms and workcell integration, and automated sample preparation. In 2026, the automated liquid handling segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to its position as the foundational instrument in every automated workflow and the breadth of its installed base across drug discovery, diagnostics and genomics. However, the robotic arms and workcell integration segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to modular architectures priced an order of magnitude below full integration and specified for 1 assay at a time.

Based on software type, the market is segmented into laboratory information management systems, electronic laboratory notebooks, scientific data management systems, workstation and instrument control software, scheduling and workflow orchestration, and artificial intelligence and data analytics modules. In 2026, the laboratory information management systems segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to its position as the system of record for sample, result and audit trail data, sized at USD 2.18 billion in 2025, with installed bases above 1,500 customers at LabVantage and 1,100 across 60 countries at STARLIMS. However, the artificial intelligence and data analytics modules segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to the new annex addressing artificial intelligence in regulated manufacturing and to automated review of the periodic review and audit trail burden the revised requirements impose.

Based on automation scale, the market is segmented into bench-top and standalone instruments, modular workcells, integrated workstations, and fully integrated automated laboratories. In 2026, the bench-top and standalone instruments segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to the number of laboratories that automate a single step rather than a workflow, and to purchase decisions that fit annual capital allocations without structural work. However, the modular workcells segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to configurations that can be specified for 1 assay and extended later, to price points an order of magnitude below full integration, and to the suitability of incremental purchasing in an environment where academic and government budget uncertainty deferred capital decisions through 2025.

Based on deployment model, the market is segmented into capital purchase, leasing and rental, automation-as-a-service and cloud laboratories, and outsourced access through contract research and development organisations. In 2026, the capital purchase segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to the historical procurement of laboratory instruments through capital programmes on replacement cycles of roughly 7 to 10 years. However, the automation-as-a-service and cloud laboratories segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to the conversion of a capital request into an operating cost scaling with experimental volume, which addresses the budget uncertainty that affected academic and government instrument demand in the United States and China through 2025, and to laboratories needing occasional rather than continuous high-throughput capacity.

Based on application, the market is segmented into drug discovery and development, clinical diagnostics, genomics and proteomics, bioprocessing and cell therapy, food, agriculture and environmental testing, forensics, and academic and basic research. In 2026, the drug discovery and development segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to screening and assay development volumes in pharmaceutical and biotechnology laboratories, which are the largest end-user group in this market. However, the clinical diagnostics segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to diagnostic accounts delivering solid sales and order growth in local currencies throughout 2025 while academic and government instrument demand contracted, and to diagnostic volume being driven by clinical demand rather than by research grant cycles.

Based on end user, the market is segmented into pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals and diagnostic laboratories, research and academic institutes, contract research and development organisations, food, agriculture and environmental laboratories, forensic laboratories, and other end users. In 2026, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to research and development budgets that support both instrument estates and validated informatics under good manufacturing practice obligations. However, the contract research and development organisations segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to the outsourcing of discovery and development work by sponsors, to utilisation economics that justify 2 or 3 shift operation of automated platforms, and to Partnering Business order entry rising in the low double digits in the second half of 2025.

Based on compliance basis, the market is segmented into research use only, GxP-regulated covering good manufacturing, laboratory and clinical practice, clinical laboratory accredited, and food and environmental accredited. In 2026, the research use only segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global Lab Automation Market. The large share of this segment is mainly due to the volume of discovery and academic work performed outside formal quality systems, where validation documentation is not required and instruments can be deployed on receipt. However, the GxP-regulated segment is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this segment is attributed to the revision of the computerised systems annex from 5 pages to 19 across 17 chapters with a data governance chapter expanding from 9 pages to 17, to the new annex addressing artificial intelligence, and to the migration of automation from discovery into process development and manufacturing support.

Base Year

2025

Historical Years

2023-2024

Forecast Period

2026-2036